ABOUT EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE & TOP TIPS

Generally a child will be able to understand language before being able to use it expressively. Children who are having difficulties using spoken language may also have difficulties with attention and listening, vocabulary development, understanding and speech (please see appropriate sections).

 

Children who are experiencing problems with expressive language may:

• Have difficulty putting words together
• Only use key words and miss out the ‘little’ important words such as, ‘is, the, a’
• Have difficulty using correct word ending such as ‘–ing’ for the present tense and ‘-ed’ for the past
• Have limited and/or inappropriate vocabulary
• Have difficulty in finding the right word
• Have difficulty putting words in the right order in a sentence
• Use non-verbal communication (e.g. pointing, gestures, taking an adult to an item) instead of speech or to accompany speech

 

You can help by:

• Making sure that talking is fun and worthwhile for your child. It is mainly through play and real life situations that children learn to talk.
• Speaking slowly, calmly and gently. Give the child an easy pattern to follow.
• Listening to what the child is saying, instead of focusing on their pronunciation.
• Letting the child know you are listening by turning to face them.
• Being positive and giving praise and reassurance in order to develop the child’s confidence.
• Trying to reduce background noise when you want to talk to the child.
• Following the child’s interests.
• Trying not to ask too many questions.

 

Top tips:

• Try not to anticipate your child’s needs, wait to see if they can ask themselves or if they need some help offer them a choice e.g. ‘apple or banana?’
• Repeat back clearly what you think the child has said and add another word for example, child says ‘teddy tummy’ and the adult repeats back ‘tickle teddy’s tummy’ or ‘teddy’s big tummy’.
• Repeat back grammatically correct sentences to your child to help develop their use of grammar e.g. child says ‘he go shop’, adult repeats ‘yes, he is going to the shop’.
• Give the child time to talk without interrupting them.
• Provide visual clues to help the child order ideas effectively before expressing them.
• With older children, you can explain word endings and why we need to use them e.g. ‘when there is more than one, we add an ‘s’ to the end’.

 

Remember, children get fed up with naming things which they know the adults

really know!